


The Substance of Things Unseen

by Firefly_Ca



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, Implied or Off-stage Rape/Non-con, Psychopathology & Sociopathy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-26
Updated: 2012-11-26
Packaged: 2017-11-19 15:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/575012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firefly_Ca/pseuds/Firefly_Ca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>School is back in session after winter break, and Veronica is transformed since the last time Cassidy saw her at the Pomroy party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Substance of Things Unseen

**Author's Note:**

> A small one-shot written way back after the season two finale aired, when I had many not-good feelings about how the show handled certain things. Simply put, this was my attempt to make the canon on the show compliant with the canon in my head. Beyond that? Well, I have more notes at the end you can read if you are interested.

"Hey, check out Mars."

The words registered slowly, through a fog of twisting thoughts.

"It looks like she trimmed her split ends with a pair of safety scissors."

"You mean like what you did to _my_ hair the night before picture day in the first grade?" Cassidy asked, absently as he scanned the crowd, trying to figure out where she was.

Dick paused for a moment, confused before remembering the picture and laughing,

"Dude. That was _sweet_."

Of course Dick looked back on it fondly. The picture was still a favourite at the Casablancas house. Something about the pained expression on Cassidy's face combined with his hair (a near miraculous combination of shaggy and patchy) spelled out hilarity for his family. Cassidy preferred to think of the picture as a portrait in humiliation, not dissimilar to Veronica right now, with her haphazardly layered hair, suggesting a cheap professional job bought in a desperate bid to minimize self-inflicted damage. She looked nervous and jumpy, like she was just waiting for the insults.

"Hey Mars, what's with the hair? You know, we already know you're white trash, you don't have to prove anything to us."

But of course she was waiting for them. She was, after all, Veronica. Some people make better targets than others. Beaver rolled his eyes as his brother elbowed him in the ribs, laughing at his self-assumed scathing wit, or as Dick put it,

"Dude, am I the most hilarious asshole ever or _what_?"

Yes, Dick. Very funny, Dick. Yes, her hair looks like garbage, Dick. Yes, that makes the white trash thing even awesomer, _Dick_. Yes, she is smarter than you, prick. No, it doesn't take much, does it, you dumb fuck?

Sometimes Cassidy wondered if he was the only person in Neptune smart enough to be a little afraid of Veronica. Sure, she was sweetness and light, kind to strays, and she let Duncan and Logan walk all over her because they used to be friends and she wanted to be again, but she wasn't stupid. She wasn't weak. The girl knew things. What people did, how they worked, and why. She watched you quietly until she figured it out and then she stored what she'd learned someplace safe, to be used only when she decided to help someone she liked enough to let into her perfect little world. It was just one of the things that made Veronica who she was, but Cassidy knew information was power, and no one was better at getting information than Veronica, which was the only reason his stomach plummeted when she started walking their direction.

It was the first time he'd seen her since Shelley Pomroy's party before winter break. Cassidy hadn't thought of her once in three weeks. He hadn't. But now he couldn't help wondering if Veronica had spent all that time hiding in her room, absently, or maybe angrily cutting at her hair – fistfuls at a time – whenever there were hints of its ugliness giving way to length. Cutting out the sweetness and leaving behind rough edges.

But that was stupid, because why would she spend an entire vacation messing around with her hair? Besides, this was Veronica Mars, and everyone at school knew that ever since November, Veronica was the biggest bitch in Neptune, like Lilly's death had left an opening or something. She probably realized last week that she was headed back to a place where no one could stand her and did it as a statement to all her old friends that she wasn't one of them anymore. That she loved her precious Lilly more than anyone else could ever dream of, so much that she had to be an absolute and repulsive drama queen about it. Just like Veronica to think her grief was better than the unwashed masses – pure as the driven snow, dressed in white and virginal, perfect in her pain.

That _was_ Veronica, Cassidy realized as she stopped in front of them. But there was no white dress anymore, no long golden hair. Instead there were combat boots, ugly plaid pants, and a black t-shirt with a growling dog on the front, baring its teeth as though it were daring you to look at her chest. Dark sparks flew from her eyes as she smiled dangerously at Dick. Cassidy decided she was intimidating enough without the stupid shirt. Funny how a tragedy could change you. It was like looking at an entirely different person, now that the innocence was gone while the hurt and understanding remained. Not that Dick noticed.

"Ronnie! Looking fine, I see. The new style really works for you. Embracing your inner skank? _Nice_. You play your cards right, Dick might take you for a ride. You like that kind of thing, right?"

"Mmm, that's right," smiled Veronica, as Cassidy marvelled at how she could pack so much sting into her words and still sound so ambivalent, so removed. "I'd never say no to Dick, would I?"

She had thrown herself completely into the part now, smiling, eyeing her prey, closing in and pushing for information, hidden under the guise of playing the game.

"Dude, don't I know it," Dick laughed stupidly, seeing nothing beyond the entertainment value of a Veronica suddenly willing to fight back. "You might want to slow down a bit, Mars. People might start to get the wrong idea."

"And what idea would that be? That I've lowered my standards? Dick I'm touched."

She turned away from him completely as he snickered, almost managing to mask the look of uncertainty that flashed across her face before focusing on Beaver.

"Hey Cass," she smiled, almost absently, looking at him but not seeing, still trying to pull hidden meaning from Dick's words, a sign that would tell her what she wanted to know.

_Was it him?_

Cassidy smiled at her shyly, before glancing away. She must have been more upset than he realized, if her newfound lack of trust was clouding over her common sense. She should have known Dick was incapable of hiding behind words, or anything else for that matter. He didn't have the capacity to be any deeper than superficial. She would be better served by looking so appraisingly at Cassidy, but he knew even on a good day she probably wouldn't give him a second glance. Cassidy was good at hiding things.

He looked at her thoughtfully as she asked him about his break, her anger fading and genuine interest sneaking into her features. A brief glimpse of last year's Veronica, still seeing him like they all did. The sweet little tagalong all the girls wanted to take home, so he could be _their_ baby brother. The only ones who didn't want anything to do with him were the members of his own family, it seemed. All the rest looked at him, when they saw him at all, and saw such a good kid, never causing problems, always doing as he was told. So good at keeping a secret when one needed to be kept.

He opened his mouth to answer her and was smacked up the side of the head by Dick.

"Dude. Don't encourage her! She'll be all over you like a dog in heat if you give her an opening. I don't think you're ready for that much slut yet, Beav, or have you forgotten last time?"

Cassidy glowered at him before risking a look back to Veronica. The walls were back in place and she was rallied for another attack, but she wasn't looking at Beaver anymore. Nothing more than a peon, once again he was overlooked entirely, which was when he realized. Veronica still thought he was one of the good guys, or at least, she didn't think he was one of the bad ones. She trusted him because she _knew_ he wasn't like the others. Knew he could never hurt anyone, that he wasn't a threat.

He was relieved. He didn't want to be anyone's enemy or to cause anyone pain – especially someone so capable of hurting him back. Of hurting him worse by pure reflex, a way to ease her own suffering. Cassidy wasn't sure he'd ever been hurt quite like that before, and he didn't want to find out what it was like. He was already all too familiar with being hurt for pain's sake, to be broken for the pleasure someone else found in overwhelming and oppressing someone smaller who couldn't fight back. He hated the idea that he could ever hurt another human being the same way, even unintentionally. But now he knew. Veronica didn't even know he was there.  


**Author's Note:**

> This was written as two different writing exercises rolled into one. First, I tried to write this so it would work on different levels, depending on how much of the show you'd seen. I have no idea if it worked or not, but the idea was that if you'd seen the first season, you would get that although this is written in a way that constantly alludes to the murder of Lilly, what's really pushed Veronica over the edge at this point is that she was drugged and raped by someone she can't remember at Shelly Pomroy's party. If you watched to the end of season two though, you know that the rapist is actually Cassidy. 
> 
> Second, this was my attempt to write... not at a fix-it, but maybe you could call it a deal-with-it fic? I truly think it was a mistake on the part of the writers to have Cassidy be a rapist for many reasons, but I wanted to try to write a character study that would try to explain his canon actions without turning him into a grandstanding, maniacal villain. Because Cassidy only works well as a character when you respect that he's the antithesis of Veronica: an abused and under-estimated kid who decides to become something more - who decides that he has the RIGHT to become something more, but who never figured out morality or ethics and wants power instead of justice. I wrote this from his PoV so I could take Cassidy's actions at the party and try to show how he might justify those actions to himself without having to admit he's like the bad guys who've victimized him his entire life.


End file.
